I have been thinking about this blog post for a couple of weeks. So many people I know express feelings of mental and emotional exhaustion which translates into just wanting to go to bed and sleep. And that’s a good thing—sometimes that is exactly what we need to do!
If you can sleep.
That’s been a problem I thought I had licked. I’ve been using my Calming Reactivity formula three times a day, sometimes one more time just before bed, and have found it wonderfully effective for helping me sleep (even though that’s not what it is for). It’s helping me have more faith and optimism combined with the grounded ability to put the battle down at the end of the day. And I definitely DO feel a growing sense of optimism. It’s doing me a lot of good!
But a couple of times this past week I could not fall asleep for hours and no flower essence made a big enough difference. In times like this I give up on sleeping, get out of bed, and grab my journal! How do you pick a flower essence effectively if you don’t even know why you’re being kept awake? Oh, maybe you think you know, there certainly might be specific thoughts twirling in your head. White Chestnut might help calm that down. But WHY are those thoughts swirling?
Last weekend was a case in point. I wasn’t feeling unhappy. I was obsessed with what I wanted to create for the future and how. That’s a positive thing on a certain level because I haven’t been able to daydream a future I want at all since the tariff party rocked our economy and due process violations started in earnest. But a glimmer of hope broke through last weekend and Paul and I started looking on Zillow again to fuel our retirement dream house desires. It was like our inner children woke up and wanted to dance and go forward with all our unbridled desires right now! All night! Combined with a counter inner movement that kept asking “HOW? WHERE? Should we move? Where? How?” and on and on. After journaling a bit I realized that our inner children were in conflict with the need to apply caution. There was actually a complex astrological influence in play that could explain this (Venus conjunct Saturn, Mars in Aries opposite Pluto, and more than a touch of Neptune). It’s a time when lots of us want fast change but don’t have a clear idea of how to get there. I didn’t know the astrological part at the time but after writing things out I realized that I need to curb my enthusiasm without squashing it. Meaning: Yay! We have enthusiasm for going after what we want! But we don’t have enough information and need to continue building our foundational building blocks while keeping an eye out for opportunity and the need to take steps.
That advice might hold for both the personal and global situation. But last weekend I was thinking about how to create our personal dreams within a backdrop of political and economic chaos. So I turned to a personal custom formula I use to calm over-excitement and impatience while soothing my heart about it all (Vervain, Impatiens, Holly, and Hawthorn). And then I slept well the rest of the night.
Earlier this week, though, it was something else. The journaling led to different insights about a different set of issues. (My Emotional Recovery formula helped with that.) I wish I could say that I have a one-size-fits-all formula for sleeping under emotionally challenging circumstances. But I suspect that would be a drug and I don’t deal with that.
Instead I highly recommend getting clear on what the main feelings are. Anxiety is a really big one for a lot of people right now so you might try Releasing Worry and Fear. Restful Nights contains a major ingredient in common with Calming Reactivity (Nicotiana) so I often choose that or both that and Releasing Worry and Fear together. If anger is the main culprit, assume that there is grief or horror underneath. I find my Healing Political Stress formula very helpful for that.
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Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.